


There’s Always a Bigger Fish

by TheMerryPanda



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game), Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Half-Siblings, One Shot, Other, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22287331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMerryPanda/pseuds/TheMerryPanda
Summary: Sebastian introduces Maru to a game called Subnautica. She makes the mistake of playing it herself.
Relationships: Maru & Sebastian (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23





	There’s Always a Bigger Fish

**Author's Note:**

> No major game spoilers. Stardew Valley fans, you can read this without having played Subnautica. Subnautica fans, I found it amusing that two of our “friends” have the same name as two friends in Stardew Valley.

“Maru!” Demetrius hollered from the front room. “Your mom and I are going to the farm. She’s building the farmer a shack, and I’m collecting more soil samples. You’ll be okay, right?”

“Of course, Dad!” She replied from the kitchen. “See you tonight. Love you!”

“Love you too!”

The front door shut, and the house fell quiet. Maru munched on her breakfast cereal in peace until she heard another door open, followed by footsteps climbing up wooden stairs from the basement.

Sebastian joined her in the kitchen and poured himself a mug of coffee from what was left that morning after Robin and Demetrius made their own.

“You didn’t have to yell.” He muttered as he sipped his bitter coffee. Maru only shrugged.

“Too lazy to move.” She yawned. “I stayed up all night playing _Subnautica_.”

Sebastian’s eyes widened, almost impressed with his half-sister. She had visited him in his room last night to ask for some programming tips for a robot she was working on, and she ended up watching him play for half an hour instead. She loved the story idea of a man crash-landing onto a strange planet covered nearly entirely in water, needing to gather supplies and building ships to survive. She especially ogled over the diverse biomes and many colorful fish specimens. He ended up downloading the game onto her computer after opening a website that provided some useful code she could use. The webpage was not looked at again.

“And it hasn’t scared you off yet?”

Maru shook her head. “Sure, the crash fish make me jumpy, but after a while, you just swim the other way until they explode and they become more obnoxious than scary. This morning I finally put together the entire radiation suit.”

“Nice.”

Maru washed her bowl and spoon, and placed them on a drying rack. “And now, to finally explore the Aurora!” she exclaimed triumphantly.

“Can I watch?” Sebastian inquired.

“Uh… sure.” She supposed it made sense that Sebastian would want to watch her for a little bit. After all, it was him letting her watch him play yesterday that persuaded her to give the game a try.

In her room, Sebastian grabbed a stool and sat next to Maru, who pulled up the game on her computer screen. In the distance, an exploded spaceship floated in the ocean.

“What’s over there, anyway?” Maru asked.

“Some useful parts. And Sammy.”

“Sammy?”

“A friendly fish who lives over there. He likes hugs.” He commented nonchalantly.

“Aw, you named a fish after your boyfriend?” She teased.

Sebastian huffed. “Shut up, Maru,” he scoffed. “Besides, that’s what the fanbase calls him. I had nothing to do with the naming of the fish.”

Maru smirked as she boarded her mini-submarine the Seamoth, drove it towards the nose of the Aurora, and then disembarked. Her character dove into the water and towards an unusually shallow and empty sea bed. Maru’s expression transitioned from overconfidence and excitement to that of confusion and concern. There was only sand to be found.

It was now Sebastian’s turn to smirk.

Maru waited a few seconds before opening her mouth. “Is this it?” was what she was going to ask, but before she could, she got her answer. Her character was suddenly forced around, and from the speakers blared an alarming metallic chord, followed by the roar of a giant red and white reaper leviathan with beady pale green eyes and the face of a skull.

“AAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!” Her shriek threatened to shatter Sebastian’s eardrums. Within a second, the creature gaped open its menacing jaws, and her character quickly respawned in the home base. Sebastian snickered through his teeth.

Jaw dropped, Maru sat for a minute, her hands paralyzed hovering above the mouse and keyboard, trying to register what happened. “What was that?”

Sebastian began to cackle maniacally. “Why, that’s just Sammy the Safety Reaper!” He wheezed and clutched his sides as he tried and failed to contain his amusement.

“A safety reaper? That _thing_ ate me! You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”

Sebastian nodded, grinning sinisterly. “Usually if you’re lucky you get to see him coming for you first.” He took a deep breath before resuming his laughter. “You should have seen your face!”

Maru reached for a pillow from her bed and started smacking him with it. “Get out. I am never playing that game again!”

She shoved him out of her bedroom and shut the door behind her, collapsing on her bed to relieve her stress and terror.

Sebastian couldn’t hide his grin when he walked to the front of the carpenter shop and opened the door for Sam who had been knocking for the last minute.

“About time you showed up. I thought you were going to cancel Solarion–” Sam let himself in, then paused mid-sentence when he saw Sebastian’s smug face. “Dude, you’re grinning like… scary. What did you do?”

“Nothing.” He deadpanned. “Maru watched me play some _Subnautica_ the other day and started playing it.”

Sam mouthed a wide “oh”, then grinned wickedly. “Did she find Sammy?”

“More like he found her.”

Sam chuckled light-heartedly. “Wait till she meets his neighbor Sebastian.”

“Are you sure you two didn’t go naming the leviathans?” Maru asked accusatorially.

“Yeah, Maru.” He frustratedly sighed. “What do you want?”

“Could you…” her voice grew quieter, “let me watch you play through the game some other time? I want to see how the story ends.”

A corner of Sebastian’s mouth picked up.

“Sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> The origin of Sammy: https://www.reddit.com/r/subnautica/comments/516ai0/stick_to_the_shallows_they_said_the_shallows_are/d79qyxt/
> 
> Names of all leviathans: https://www.reddit.com/r/subnautica/comments/81dyuf/names_for_all_the_leviathans/


End file.
